Introduction:

Viruses constitute the most frequent causes in acute respiratory infection, although the causal diagnosis is usually empiric given the complexity of its isolation.

Objective:

To characterize patients under 5 years with acute respiratory infections, according to epidemiological, clinical and imaging variables.

Methods:

A descriptive and cross-sectional investigation of 171 patients with acute respiratory infections and viral isolation was carried out by means of deep nasopharyngeal swab. They were discharged from the Neonatology Service of Antonio María Béguez César Southern Children Teaching Hospital in Santiago de Cuba, from 2014 to 2016, for which calculations of frequencies and percentages were carried out.

Results:

There was a prevalence of infants (57.9 %), the male sex and those affected patients with diagnosis of pneumonia (40.9 %) and bronchiolitis (28.0 %) due to respiratory syncytial virus and rhinovirus. The early suppression of breast feeding and nicotine addiction were the prevalent risk factors. Both fever and cough and the nasal secretions were preponderant, and the complications were infrequent. The alveolar consolidation prevailed in patients with pneumonia.

Conclusions:

Patients with respiratory virus were clinically and epidemiologically characterized and conflict with the pattern prevalence of alveolar infiltrates described in the consulted medical literature was evidenced.

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